Berthoud soccer blows past Roosevelt

Spartans pepper the goal in Tri-Valley win

Berthoud junior Kurt Hucal, left, works against Roosevelt's Nate Rameriz in the first half Wednesday at Marr Field.
(Steve Stoner)

BERTHOUD -- Putting as many shots on goal as possible is an effective way to produce scoring, and on Wednesday night the Berthoud boy's soccer team proved this theory to be true.

The Spartans shot at Roosevelt goalkeeper Alec Stewart 24 times in their 8-4 victory over the RoughRiders at Marr Stadium.

Berthoud went to work immediately, hosting its Tri-Valley league and crosstown rival. A mere 12 minutes into the game, the Spartans welcomed the Riders with a swarm of three goals over a span of just 97 seconds.

The first player to tally one on the scoreboard for Berthoud was forward Kurt Hucal, who found the back of the net after the ball deflected off Stewart, giving him the open shot. His teammate, Maikol Beltran Ayala followed with the help from Emmanuel Blomstrand, who was credited with the assist.

Blomstrand was then awarded with his turn to put one in merely 70 seconds later, finishing the three-goal swarm in less than 2 minutes.

"When you get that first goal, everybody gets confidence in them and we just start playing our game," said Hucal, who scored a hat trick for the first time since his freshman year. "It gets us going and from there we start getting the goals."

Instead of turning things around quickly, Roosevelt allowed the furious scoring drive to be followed up with two more off the foot of Berthoud's Jano Beltran Ayala, who was set up by Everett Owens on both accounts, putting the Spartans ahead 5-0.

Roosevelt was able to cross midfield only eight times in the first half, but was able to connect on one its attempts. Sophomore Josh Sharbono burned past the Berthoud defensive line and put in the Riders' first goal of the night, doing it unassisted.

"That one was very important. Had that not happened, it would have been probably a different half," Stewart said.

The Spartans answered Roosevelt's lone first-half goal almost immediately as Hucal picked up his second in the 14 following seconds to put Berthoud up 6-1 going into halftime.

Berthoud continued where it left off after the break when Blomstrand broke free for an unassisted shot good for his second goal on the night.

Roosevelt was able to pull back within three points in the second half after a pair of Astwin Tavizon goals that occurred within 30 seconds of each other. Then with 10 minutes left in the game, Hugo Garcia added another to end the game with three unanswered goals by RHS.

"That's probably more my fault by putting the more younger players in at one time and not sorting them out. But at the same time, that's when our players that are out there need to step up and kind of be leaders," Berthoud coach Jason Hughes said.